Massage and Cancer: the Benefits of Healing Touch

When breast cancer patient Meredith Biegel had a massage four days after her mastectomy, the experience surprised her. Instead of deep Swedish massage, therapist Cheryl Chapman used a light touch that relaxed and soothed Biegel. As beautiful music played, and lit candles filled the room, Chapman used the back of her hand to softly massage Biegel’s body.

“I was filled with so much fear and tightness in my body beforehand,” Biegel, 43, says. “But afterward I felt relaxed, as if Cheryl’s hands were a little magical.”

Chapman, a former oncology nurse who specializes in training massage therapists to work with cancer patients, says massage can be beneficial for women with breast and reproductive cancers. As well as relaxing muscles, light massage can loosen and soften scars, improve range of motion, increase circulation and decrease pain.

“The use of touch is just very therapeutic for cancer patients,” says Chapman of Shorthills, N.J.
Though research on massage is slim, it’s starting to show the benefits of touch therapy. A recent study of 34 women with breast cancer by Maria Hernandez Reif, M.D., PhD of the University of Miami, revealed that those who went through massages three times a week for five weeks experienced a significant drop in anxiety, anger and depression when compared to a control group. Body chemicals such as serotonin and dopamine that increase relaxation went up, as did the number of natural killer (NK) cells in the women’s blood. NK cells help boost the action of the immune system.

Previous research at the University of Miami and other universities has revealed that massage can also decrease chronic pain, insomnia, and stress. “Massage reduces cortisol, a stress hormone that if chronically elevated destroys healthy immune cells,” Hernandez-Reif says. A type of massage called Shiatsu, also known as acupressure, can help alleviate nausea as well, according to Chapman.

Massage therapists who work with cancer patients typically work with a light touch and may employ healing herbal oils and creams as well. Samantha Stormer, a massage therapist and aromatherapist, owner of Sacred Beginnings in Corte Madera, CA, uses oils such as frankincense and yarrow to increase relaxation and decrease inflammation in cancer patients. “Massage and aromatherapy can help a person heal—if the therapist knows what he or she is doing,” she says.

There are some important cautions for women with cancer who want to use massage therapy. Deep tissue work or Swedish-type massage can be dangerous, causing bruising. The therapist should avoid radiation burns and areas with lymphedema, unless he or she is trained in manual lymph drainage, a type of specialized light massage that helps drain the lymph channels. Regular aromatherapy or straight massage can cause spasms in the lymph vessels, increasing the lymphedema swelling. The therapist should also have specialized training in working with cancer patients.

Massage cannot spread cancer, according to trained massage therapists and physicians. This belief is simply an old myth.

This article originally appeared in Mamm Magazine.